The Missouri Foundation for Health has named the first five winners of its new "Spark Prize," an award backing Missourians who are working to promote health equity.
Each winner gets $200,000 in no-strings-attached funding to fuel their vision. Awardees were chosen for their potential to create meaningful, lasting change in the Show-Me State.
Evonnia Woods, a community organizer and movement builder, was one recipient, chosen for her progress and vision to advance racial, reproductive, and economic justice across Missouri. She shared why the award from the foundation is unique.
"A lot of foundations, they want to see evidence that you're already doing what you're asking for funds to continue doing," Woods explained. "In this regard, it's like, 'Oh, you believe in me. This is good because I believe in me.'"
Unlike traditional grants, the Spark Prize is flexible and trust-based, given directly to individuals and not organizations. The recipients were selected from more than 170 nominations from diverse backgrounds, regions, and sectors across Missouri.
Ciearra "CJ" Walker, founder and CEO of the Community Health Worker Coalition, which has trained more than 300 community health workers in St. Louis and supported more than 600 statewide, was a recipient. Walker, a Detroit transplant, shared the motivation behind starting her organization and her vision for the future.
"What we are hoping to do is to replicate across the country what's possible when we position ourselves," Walker noted. "Not just to extract from our community leaders, but to truly allow them to be architects of the system that they participate in and benefit from them accordingly."
Walker added that her coalition also reinvested $30,000 dollars into its members through pay, training, and growth support.
The Missouri Public News Service is a partner with KRCU Public Radio.
